XJet: NanoParticle Jetting Technology

Forbes recently spoke with XJet CEO Hanan Gothait, who is overseeing the company’s NanoParticle Jetting Technology, which is helping in the fight against cancer.

XJet, based in Israel, “has developed a unique technology, NanoParticle Jetting, which allows its 3D printers to handle both metals and ceramics with an extremely high degree of accuracy and some of the highest densities on the market.”

This “allows XJet’s machines to seamlessly distribute distinct physical properties along different parts of the same object.” Thus, XJet’s machines “have already been adopted in a range of industries: aerospace, automotive, and the medical industry.”

Indeed, “XJet’s printers now build components for a new breast cancer treatment, a potentially life-saving new solution, which would not be possible without XJet’s technology. XJet is also set to help accelerate the 5G communication revolution through 3D-printed antennas, which boost the signal in a cost-effective way.”

To explain how exactly this NanoParticle Jetting technology works, Gothait explains: “the printing material comes in the form of solid nanoparticles floating in liquid and sealed in protective cartridges. The special liquid protects the nanoparticles from the risk of oxidation, and avoids the need to handle potentially hazardous powders as in other 3D printing technologies. The printheads then start jetting out the content of the cartridges at a rate of 120 million drops per second; high temperatures cause the protective liquid to evaporate, leaving the solid nanoparticles to deposit in fine layers of extremely high density”

“Our customers sometimes send us crazy ideas for new geometries and new materials, and we try them out. Sometime next year, XJet will be able to unveil some science fiction materials.”